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May 20, 2011

You Should Include Fasting in Your Muscle Building Program

There’s a growing body of evidence and sentiment that promotes the use of intermittent fasting in conjunction with any exercise and fitness program you may have embarked upon. This is no accident. Fasting has long been shown to deliver benefits that can’t be achieved through other means, and it would be a mistake to discount it as a faddish or fringe method undeserving of your attention. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why you may want to consider this to help with your overall plan.

First, let’s define exactly what intermittent fasting is and why it can be incorporated into a workout routine. Intermittent fasting is the practice of abstaining from food for a period of usually 24 hours, once or twice per week on a week-to-week basis. It is unlike juice and other types of fasts in that there is no sugars, or other consumables other than water taken in. This is for several reasons. The point of intermittent fasting is to give you a chance to cut caloric intake while still maintaining a high metabolism, and also to cleanse your system. Other types of fasts emphasize different goals than these, with different results. Juice fasts, for instance, still have you consuming large amounts of juice, which contain natural sugars that may well wreak havoc with your blood sugar, throwing your whole system out of kilter. Other types of fasts, such as fasts that have you subsisting on a particular food group, have their place, but more than likely not in the weight loss realm. There are many spiritual benefits to be had from fasting, and this is also important to many people.

My view on this is that you should include intermittent fasting one or two days a week at the start, if you are involved in a workout whose goal is to achieve maximum fat loss. The practice of deleting up to two full days of calories from your weekly dietary plan should excite you, and the good news is that fasts of this nature don’t have the debilitating effects that other, longer fasts have on your metabolism. You experience no energy drain, and in fact, often the opposite occurs. You also are not usually plagued with any of the other downers associated with fasting, like light-headedness. You aren’t ravenously hungry, and you are more than able to handle a full workout schedule.

One of the advantages of a plan like this that includes intermittent fasting is that you can eat normally on your “off” days, as long as normal to you isn’t a full-on gorge session! It doesn’t do much good to fast at all if you spend the other days cramming your face with anything you can get your hands on!

Take some time and investigate intermittent fasting as an aid to your workout plan. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at just what it can do for you!